Tech news in 3 minutes

Archer acquires former rival Wisk Aero

11 h ago

Archer Aviation now owns former rival Wisk Aero after Boeing agreed to sell the electric aircraft subsidiary and two other units—SkyGrid and Insitu—in exchange for a 16.5% stake in Archer, marking the culmination of a three-year legal battle over trade secrets. The deal, disclosed in a regulatory filing Monday, gives Boeing newly issued Archer shares equal to 19.75% of Archer’s outstanding shares before closing, resulting in about a 16.5% post-deal stake. This acquisition resolves a once-embittered relationship that began in April 2021 when Wisk sued Archer for “brazen theft” of confidential IP. The two-year legal fight ended in an unusual settlement that not only dismissed Archer’s $1 billion counter-suit but also launched a collaboration, with Archer naming Wisk the exclusive provider of autonomous technology and granting Wisk an option to buy shares at $0.01 each. Wisk originated from Kittyhawk’s Cora autonomous air taxi program, spun off into a Boeing joint venture in 2019 and later becoming a wholly owned Boeing subsidiary after a $450 million investment in 2022. Meanwhile, Archer—founded in 2018 and public since 2021—has expanded beyond its initial eVTOL air taxi plans into defense, raising $430 million in December 2024 for its Archer Defense program and another $300 million in 2025 from BlackRock and Wellington. It also struck an exclusive deal with Anduril to develop a hybrid VTOL aircraft for defense. Archer recently completed a piloted round-trip flight of its all-electric Midnight aircraft between Salinas and Monterey airports, preparing for operations under the White House’s eVTOL Integration Pilot Program later this year.